Bush, Fukuda lay out goals for G-8 summit in Japan
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(AP) - Before focusing on global challenges, President Bush sought on Sunday to address Tokyo's concerns that progress in ending a nuclear standoff with North Korea has not helped settled the sensitive issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the North.
The president held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda soon after arriving on the northern island of Hokkaido for his eighth and final summit meeting of the world's leading industrialized nations.
Greeting Bush on his 62nd birthday, Fukuda asked about his trip from Washington. "It was good," Bush said. "Thank you for asking. It had a beautiful ending _ right here."
Japan is an important participant in the six-nation talks that led to North Korea's recent declaration about its nuclear activities. Japanese citizens are upset about the U.S. move to remove the communist country from the State Department's terror blacklist in exchange for North Korea's decision to admit to some of its weapons work.
As a condition for sending aid and improving relations with the impoverished North, Japan long has pushed for the resolution of North Korea's kidnappings of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. The abductees apparently were used to train North Korean agents in Japanese language and customs.
Knowing the U.S. action would put a wrinkle in U.S.-Japanese relations, Bush called Fukuda just before the administration announced on June 26 it would ease penalties against North Korea and remove the North, which he once labeled as part of his "axis of evil," from the terrorism list. Bush told Fukuda the U.S. would continue to push North Korea to resolve the kidnapping issue.
"The Japanese public has very strong feelings about getting positive progress" on the abductee issue, Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council's senior director for Asian Affairs, told reporters traveling with Bush aboard Air Force One. "The president has said we're not going to forget that issue. ... I think the Japanese prime minister will, of course, want to hear the president repeat those assurances."
Before leaders began arriving for the Group of Eight summit, more than 1,000 people marched in northern Japan to protest the event. Demonstrators demanded that the summit nations take urgent measures to stop global warming, grant indigenous people greater rights, combat world poverty and battle discrimination.
Fukuda has made climate change the centerpiece of the meetings involving leaders from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Canada. The prime minister, who suffers from low approval ratings, would like to emerge with an agreement on 50 percent overall reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050.
Bush says any climate change deal must include commitments from fast-growing economies such as China and India. He says these countries must be held to the emission-reduction standards as older, developed economies.
In his meeting with Fukuda, Bush also planned to discuss how U.S. troops are being moved within Japan and out of the country.
The Japanese are helping transfer 8,000 Marines and their dependents from Japan to Guam. The U.S. military is realigning its base structure in Japan to move troops out of urban areas. About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in Japan under a security pact between the two countries. Many Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the American bases.
Other issues include U.S. and Japanese aid to battle poverty and disease and improve health in Africa; Japan's support of cargo flights between Kuwait and Iraq; reconstruction assistance in Iraq; and its refueling operation in support of troops in Afghanistan.
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On the Net:
Group of Eight summit: http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/